Saturday, January 30, 2010

-The Habs problem is not size. It's willingness to go to the net. It's been the same problem for years and it's not getting any better. The thing is, we know they actually CAN do it, because they do whenever they're down a goal with a minute to go.

-Weber got beat on the Kovalev goal, but I thought he had a pretty solid game. So did O'Byrne. I think in two years, those two along with Markov, Gorges and Subban could be a decent mobile, young defence corps.

-Bob Cole: "Shot! Two shoots!" Just retire, Bob.

-I don't remember the last time I saw Cammalleri pass on the rush. Also on the mental missing list: the last time I saw the Habs get a rebound.

-If Cammalleri's gone, and it looks like he will be, you might as well look forward to baseball home openers. Hockey, for us, is done.

-I wonder if Gionta's house is painted goal-crease blue? He seems to like the colour.

-Andrei Markov is just offensively gifted. The opposition finds his gifts most offensive.

-Hal Gill cost the team this game. He and Martin. There's no way Plekanec should have been out there at the end for that faceoff. He'd already taken five in a row and he was gassed.

Notes on the second:

-When Gomez is just dumping the puck in on the rush, you can't expect much in the way of offence.

-Carbo on Halak: "All he does is go into the net and win games." I wish someone would ask him, "Well, Guy, why didn't you play him more last year?" Just to see what he'd say.

-At least the white shirts are getting on the puck first once in a while. I think they were last in every race in Florida.

-Gill gets stripped so often he should have a G-string and a pole. If the Habs are selling at the deadline, I hope Gainey red-tags that big pylon.

-When a team has had only five out of top six forwards in the lineup all year it's going to have trouble scoring. When it has no scoring at all from the bottom six, it's going to lost a lot of one-goal games.

-Pouliot was such a great acquisition. He's like a sapphire in a bag of marbles.

-Not a bad period. There's hope now. All the better to crush you with, my dear!

Notes on the first:

-It's Hockey's Tim Horton's Day in Canada!

-Hey, the Battle of the Ninth Rounders in net today!

-Jaro's pads are like springboards. His rebounds could do a triple somersault with a full twist before they hit the ice.

-I have a better chance of receiving a knighthood than the Habs do of receiving a pass on the fly.

-Carbo looks a little too smug when answering questions about what the Habs are doing wrong. How easily he forgets how much harder it was to answer them when he was in Martin's shoes.

-I don't understand how the Canadiens have the puck on their sticks in their own end, but just can't make it go from one player to another cleanly.

-Hal Gill is really good at being tall. Not so good at noticing where his man is in his own end.

-What a pair of crap calls on the O'Byrne hit. Neither player did anything wrong there. If the argument against banning head shots is that it will take hitting out of the game, that argument is already lost. A clean hit gets a penalty now half the time anyway.

'Pouliot is like a sapphire in a bag of marbles'-ah JT you are priceless....I liked Carbo as a player but that is where it stopped-however I feel sorry for him because he has to work with Bob Cole (the moron).....

That last goal is Markov's fault. He didn't watch where his man was heading, gave him a mile of space, and then barely tried on the backcheck. Look at the video again. I know he's our best player, but that goal was not Gill's fault.

The only insight from Guy that I did appreciate is when he said that one of the Habs' problems is that they don't get the puck in deep very often, creating dangerous turnovers at the blue line. This would help explain why they get outshot so often. After he said it, I noticed that the puck never made it deeper than Ottawa's defensive face off circles for several minutes. This would also explain why they get so few penalties against. The one time Moen dumped and chased, he drew a penalty. It is bad enough that the third and fourth line never score, but it would help if they at least drew more penalties. But that would be just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic at this point without Cammalleri and AK46.

just reported that Cammalerri has MCL issues and requires an MRI...doesn't sound good...no Andrei no Mike, no second line...they just got a whole lot easier to play against 5-on-5 which wasn't that hard to begin with

@anon: Agreed the winning goal itself was on Markov. But I was referring to Gill's overall crappy play, including letting Kovalev go on the first goal and being in the box when both of Ottawa's other goals were scored.

-Hal Gill is good killing penalties but that's about it. Seeing him paired with anybody is painful but with Bergeron it's downright terrifying. For the life of me I can't understand why the worst defenseman on the team wears an "A". My estimation of Jacques Martin is sinking fast.

About Me

My name is Leigh Anne Power, and I am a Habs fan. I'm kind of obsessed, so even though the world doesn't need another Habs blog, I can't help it. If you choose to follow this blog on Twitter, it's at @habsloyalist. The link's below.